If Kathryn Kemp-Griffin has her way, women around the world will be tossing their bras next month — not in protest, but as a gesture of solidarity in the battle against breast cancer.

The Pink Bra Toss, one of the liveliest annual events in the fight against breast cancer, returns for the eighth year on Sunday, May 14. And this time, Kemp-Griffin is hoping to turn it into a global event.

The Canadian-born author of Paris Undressed and host of the Paris Lingerie Tours also founded the charitable organization Pink Bra Bazaar to organize the annual outdoor bra toss at the Trocadéro, against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower.

Last year’s group bra toss outside the Eiffel Tower in Paris drew a big crowd.

The goal of the colourful spring ritual — which attracts men, women and children, many in costume — is “to make the bra a symbol of lifelong breast health, reminding women daily to make the right decisions for themselves,” the organization says.

“By tossing our bras we help liberate the taboos surrounding breast cancer. This symbolic gesture filling the sky around the world unites women and men of all ages in celebration of breast health.”

This year, the organization is inviting women, groups and businesses around the world to hold their own local bra toss in an effort to spread Pink Bra Bazaar’s message about breast health education and support.

Participating groups are invited to register local events on the organization’s website to receive support in setting up their own bra toss. Registration is free and more details can be found here. They’ll even help you learn the event’s theme song, “I Love My Boobs”, which is a highlight of the yearly bra toss.

Pink Bra Bazaar, whose motto is “Push Up the Fight Against Breast Cancer”, also hosts a series of two-hour creative workshops in Paris in which women and girls decorate bras and share experiences and education about breast health.

That effort is supported by its Pink Bra Box campaign each October, in which women are encouraged to donate used bras at participating retailers to be used in the group’s educational ateliers.

One Response to “Paris Pink Bra Toss Makes A Global Push”

Sydney Ross Singersays:

This is the bra industry trying to confuse the public about the link between breast cancer and bras. I am a medical anthropologist breast cancer researcher and co-author of Dressed to Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras.

Bra-free women have about the same risk of breast cancer as men, while the tighter and longer the bra is worn the higher the risk rises.

Women tossing their bras should do so once an for all, and stop wearing bras altogether. For more, see my website BrasAndBreastCancer dot org.

SOME STUDIES THAT SUPPORT THE BRA/CANCER LINK:
1991 Harvard study (CC Hsieh, D Trichopoulos (1991). Breast size, handedness and breast cancer risk. European Journal of Cancer and Clinical Oncology 27(2):131-135.). This study found that, “Premenopausal women who do not wear bras had half the risk of breast cancer compared with bra users…”

1991-93 U.S. Bra and Breast Cancer Study by Singer and Grismaijer, published in Dressed To Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras (Avery/Penguin Putnam, 1995; ISCD Press, 2005). Found that bra-free women have about the same incidence of breast cancer as men. 24/7 bra wearing increases incidence over 100 times that of a bra-free woman.

Singer and Grismaijer did a follow-up study in Fiji, published in Get It Off! (ISCD Press, 2000). Found 24 case histories of breast cancer in a culture where half the women are bra-free. The women getting breast cancer were all wearing bras. Given women with the same genetics and diet and living in the same village, the ones getting breast disease were the ones wearing bras for work.

2011 a study was published, in Spanish, confirming that bras are causing breast disease and cancer. It found that underwired and push-up bras are the most harmful, but any bra that leaves red marks or indentations may cause disease.

2016 Wearing a Tight Bra for Many Hours a Day is Associated with Increased Risk of Breast Cancer Adv Oncol Res Treat 1: 105. This is the first epidemiological study to look at bra tightness and time worn, and found a significant bra-cancer link.